Design

With the X204n, Lexmark uses a very basic cube-style design with an extremely small footprint. It has a two-tone colour scheme: the majority is dark grey, and it has business white at the face. Up top, there is the ADF and a deluxe, well-designed control panel with an LCD display. The high quality of the keyboard/control panel is a little surprising at this price point. The physical design offers convenient access to the internals. Lexmark has spaced the internal design well, which makes it easy to swap Lexmark X204n cartridges and to fix paper jams. One downside to the Lexmark X204n is that the paper input capacity is not upgradable.

Advantages

What sets the Lexmark X204n apart from other printers in this class is its price. This is a business machine through and through suitable for the demanding small office, but Lexmark prices it at the upper range of the home-user market. This makes it a particularly good option for the home user willing to splurge a little and for the small office working on a tight budget. In addition, this doesn't come at the cost of performance.

Disadvantages

The biggest problem with the Lexmark X204n is its non-upgradable capacity. The X204n can handle a heavy workload, but the capacity can become a major bottleneck long before you get there. The office that needs to perform large, unattended jobs will need to look elsewhere. Another issue is the lack of duplexing support. This is usually a standard feature on business-class machines like this one.